Stamping press lines are commonly utilized in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry in order to produce body panels from sheet metal materials. Such stamping press lines often require the use of idle station template nests for class-A surfaces. Those template nests utilize urethane pads where there is panel contact. Further it should be appreciated that the template nests are part and press line specific.
Current manufacturing of template nests with urethane pads is costly, requiring multiple manufacturing steps as well as intensive machining and assembly time. Material utilization is extremely low due to stock size limitation. Further designs are restrictive due to lack of machining capabilities with multiple pieces required for final assembly.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1 showing a prior art template nest. In accordance with current practice, the pad P is made with custom poured urethane strips S having an extruded aluminum base B. The custom pads P are cut to desired length and hand-drilled with mounting holes. The shorter strips of urethane are mounted to the template T with 2-3 fasteners F which require the template to match with tapped holes. The template assembly is 3D machined and manually deburred. The entire process is limited by available predetermined stock sizes. Further, the durometer of the urethane utilized is limited to that which can be machined to shape. Typically, such a durometer is not ideal for handling class-A surfaces.
This document relates to a new and improved apparatus for a stamping press line station in the form of an automation template including an integral contact pad molded in place and self-attached to the template. Such a pad may be made in substantially any desired shape with substantially any desired durometer in order to provide optimum performance when handling class-A surfaces of sheet metal parts.